Early life

Dwight
Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large family. His father, a small
farmer and stonemason, was an alcoholic and died at the age of 41
when Dwight was only four years old. He had five older brothers and
a younger sister, with an additional twin brother and sister born
one month after his father's death. His mother struggled to support
the family, but even with her best effort, some of her children had
to be sent off to work for their room and board. Dwight too was
sent off, where he went he received cornmeal porridge and milk,
three times a day. He complained to his mother, but when she found
out that he had all that he wanted to eat, she sent him back. Even
during this time, she continued to send them to church. Together
with his eight siblings he was raised in the Unitarian church. His oldest brother ran away
and was not heard from by the family until many years later.

When Moody
turned 17, he moved to Boston to work in his uncle's shoe store. One of
his uncle's requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational
Church of Mount Vernon where Dr.
Edward Norris Kirk was pastor. In April
1855 Moody was then converted to evangelical Christianity when his
teacher, Edward Kimball talked to him about how much God loved him.
His conversion sparked the start of his career as an evangelist.
However his first application for church membership, in May 1855,
was rejected. He was not received as a church member until May 4,
1856. As his teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball, stated:

Chicago and the Civil War

Moody
moved to Chicago, Illinois in
September, 1856, where he joined the Plymouth Congregational
Church, and began to take an active part in the prayer
meetings. In the spring of 1857, he began to minister to the
welfare of the sailors in Chicago's port, then gamblers and thieves
in the saloons. A contemporary witness, William Ryenolds, recalled
a few years later:

His work led to the largest Sunday School of his time. As a result
of his tireless labor, within a year the average attendance at his
school was 650, while 60 volunteers from various churches served as
teachers. It became so well known that the just-elected President Lincoln visited and spoke at a
Sunday School meeting on November 25, 1860.

After the Civil War started, he
was involved with the U.S. Christian Commission of the YMCA, and paid nine visits to the battle-front, being
present among the Union soldiers after the conflicts of Shiloh, Pittsburgh
Landing, and Murfreesboro, and ultimately entered Richmond with the army of General Grant. He married Miss Emma
C. Revell, on August 28, 1862, with whom he had a daughter, Emma
Reynolds Moody, and two sons, William Revell And Paul Dwight Moody.

The growing Sunday School congregation needed a permanent home, so
Moody started a church in Chicago, the Illinois Street
Church.

In June 1871, Moody met Ira D.Sankey, the Gospel singer, with whom
he soon partnered. In October the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his church,
his home, and the dwellings of most of his members. His family had
to flee for their lives, and, as Mr. Moody said, he saved nothing
but his reputation and his Bible. His church was rebuilt within
three months at a near-by location as the Chicago Avenue Church.
His lay follower William
Eugene Blackstone was a prominent American Zionist.

In the years after the fire, Moody's wealthy Chicago supporter J.A.
Farwell attempted to persuade him to make his permanent home in
Chicago, offering to build Moody and his family a new house. But
the now-famous Moody, also sought by supporters in New York,
Philadelphia and elsewhere, chose the tranquil farm he had
purchased next door to his birthplace in Northfield, MA. He felt he
could better recover from his lengthy and exhausting preaching
trips in a rural setting. Northfield became an important location
in evangelical Christian history in the late 19th century as Moody
organized summer conferences which were led and attended by
prominent Christian preachers and evangelists from around the
world. It was also in Northfield where Moody founded three schools
which later merged into today's Northfield Mount Hermon
School.

England

It was
while on a trip to England in Spring of
1872 that he became well known as an evangelist. Some have
claimed he was the greatest evangelist of the 19th century. He
preached almost a hundred times and came into communion with the
Plymouth Brethren. On several
occasions he filled stadiums of 2,000 to 4,000 capacity. In the
Botanic Gardens Palace, a meeting had between 15,000 to 30,000
people.

This turnout continued throughout 1874 and 1875, with crowds of
thousands at all of his meetings. During his visit to Scotland he
was helped and encouraged by Andrew
A.Bonar. The famous London
Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon
invited him to speak and promoted him as well. When he returned to
the United States, crowds of 12,000 to 20,000 were just as common
as in England. President Grant and
some of his cabinet attended a meeting on January 19, 1876. His
evangelistic meetings were held from Boston to New York, throughout
New England and as far as San Francisco, and other West coast towns
from Vancouver to San Diego.

Moody aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting
"The Wordless Book", a teaching
tool that had been invented by Charles
Spurgeon in 1866. In 1875 he added a fourth color to the design
of the three-color evangelistic device: gold - to "represent
heaven". This "book" has been and is still used to teach uncounted
thousands of illiterate people - young and old - around the globe
about the Gospel message.

Dwight L. Moody visited Britain with Ira
D.Sankey, with Moody acting as
preacher and Sankey singing. Together they published books of
Christian hymns. In 1883 they visited
Edinburgh and raised £10,000 for the building of a new home
for the Carrubbers
Close Mission.Moody later preached at the laying of the
foundation stone for what is one of the few buildings on the
Royal Mile which continues to be used for
its original purpose and is now called the Carrubbers
Christian Centre.

His influence was felt among Swedes despite the fact that he was of
English heritage, never visited Sweden or any Scandinavian country,
and never spoke a word of the Swedish language. Nevertheless, he
became a hero revivalist among Swedish Mission Friends in Sweden
and America.

News of Moody’s large revival campaigns in Great Britain from
1873–1875 traveled quickly to Sweden, making “Mr. Moody” a
household name in homes of many Mission Friends. Moody’s sermons
published in Sweden were distributed in books, newspapers, and
colporteur tracts, and led to the spread of Sweden’s “Moody fever”
from 1875–1880.

He preached his last sermon on November 16, 1899 in Kansas City,
KS. Becoming ill, he returned home by train to Northfield. During
the preceding several months, friends had observed he had added
some 30 pounds to his already ample frame. Although his illness was
never diagnosed, it has been speculated that he suffered congestive
heart failure. He died on December 22, surrounded by family.
Already installed by Moody as leader of his Chicago Bible
Institute, R.A.Torrey succeeded Moody as its
president. Ten years after Moody's death, the Chicago
Avenue Church was renamed The Moody Church in his honor, and the Chicago Bible Institute was
likewise renamed Moody Bible Institute.